How Religion, Bad Politics Humiliated APC In Jos North

How the All Progressives Congress, APC came third behind the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the unheralded Peoples Redemption Party, PRP in the Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency by-election is resonating new political permutations on the plateau.

How did the APC lose an election it has won since 2015 may be seen as a referendum on the APC at the federal and state levels. Even more, it goes to prove the assertion in many quarters that the plateau is a PDP foothold that was lost to the APC by former Governor Jonah Jang’s political slip in 2015.

The Jos North/Bassa Seat became vacant after the former occupier of the seat, Haruna Maitala who was elected on the platform of the APC died in a motor accident in April 2021.

His death opened an opportunity for the contest of relgious and ethnic battles among the sharply divided ethnic and religious mix on the plateau.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the seat was first won in 1999 by Lumumba Adeh, a Christian. However, since 2003 the seat had consistently been won by Muslims and been seen as the hotbed of the opposition to the PDP.

The Muslim dominance on the seat was pushed by the sharp poltiical sensitivity of the Muslim population concentrated in Jos North and also by the concurrent seeming laxity of the Christian population in the area.

Entering into the by-election, the fight for the APC ticket was hotly contested by two major aspirants, Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, a former occupier of the seat who is a Muslim, and Joseph Aku, a Christian and former commissioner in the Governor Simon Lalong cabinet.  

The APC primary election conducted on Februay 2 ended in a deadlock forcing a rerun for February 4. However, Yahaya-Kwande in a petition to the national secretariat claimed that he won the primary as he alleged that external forces within the state chapter manipulated the results.

He as such boycotted the rerun that led to Aku emerging as the first Christian candidate of the opposition party since 2003.

Aku’s emergence forced a rebellion among the Muslim Ulamma who propped up the PRP candidate, Adam Alkali as an option for the Muslims to vote.

The emergence of Alkali became the first major threat to the APC as it saw for the first time a possible sweeping away of the Muslim vote that had regularly been the portion of the party.

Another threat that came the way of the APC candidate was the significant angst against Aku who was seen by many on the Plateau as having betrayed his former principal, GNS Pwajok, 2015 governorship candidate of the PDP after his death. Aku was the campaign manager of the late Pwajok and the quickness with which he crossed over to the APC after the loss and death of Pwajok did not do his credibility much.

However, perhaps the most critical factor was the religious factor. As the campaign reached its home run, a prominnet Muslim leader was quoted as saying that Moslems would not allow the seat they had consistently occupied since 2003 to be rotated with non-Muslims. That was said to have been the campiagn among some Muslim leaders in mosques in the days leading to the polls.

This campaign was said to have fired the nerve of the normally politically non-challant Christian population who had in the past stayed away from the polls. Indeed, ahead of the polls, the PDP which fielded a christian was said to have feared that the non-challance of the Christian population would lead to a brusing victory by the PRP.

However, the heavy dose of religion poured in by the Islamic leader was said to have mobilised the Christian population.

The election thus saw about the highest turn out as Muslims and Christians came out in their numbers to vote.

In the end, GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mr Musa Agah of the PDP as the winner.

Dr Oyeyinka Oyeyinde, the INEC Returning Officer announced that Agah scored 40,343 votes to beat his closest rival Mr Adam Alkali of the PRP who came second with 37, 757 votes.

He said that Mr Joseph Aku of the APC came third with 26111 votes in the Jos North vote.

Remarkably, the governor has accepted the result but the third place finishing of his party in the election is bound to question his capacity to birth a political legacy given that he has just about a year to leave office.

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